Tuesday, August 31, 2010

When President Obama steps into the Oval Office to deliver his prime-time address, he won't be taking a victory lap and he won't utter the words "mission accomplished," a top aide says. FULL STORY | THREE THINGS TO WATCH

Monday, August 30, 2010

Additional National Guard troops assigned to the Mexican border under President Barack Obama's border security initiative have started reporting to their posts, according to a sergeant with the Arizona National Guard.

Republican Sen. David Vitter and Democratic Rep. Charlie Melancon easily coasted to victory Saturday in the Louisiana Senate primary, setting up a November race between the conservative senator and the Blue Dog Democrat congressman.

The Bush administration made a "fatal mistake" by talking up facts and figures without painting a broader picture of the obstacles in its widely criticized Hurricane Katrina response effort, ex-FEMA chief Michael Brown said Thursday.

Former President Jimmy Carter is leaving North Korea Friday with a U.S. citizen who was imprisoned in the communist country after entering it illegally in January, the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia, said.

Weighed down by a president with a sub-500 approval rating, Democratic Congressional Campaign Chairman Chris Van Hollen will lay out the party's plan of attack for November elections at a Friday news conference.

For the people of Iraq, the withdrawal of U.S. forces will be largely symbolic. The average Iraqi has not seen U.S. forces since June 2009, when they redeployed to the outskirts of Iraqi cities under the terms of the 2008 security agreement between the United States and Iraq. Since then, Iraqi forces have been in charge of urban areas: manning most checkpoints, conducting operations against extremists and maintaining law and order.

"We are on the right side of history! We are on the side of individual freedoms and liberties and, dammit, we will reclaim the civil rights moment. We will take that movement -- because we were the people who did it in the first place." -- Glenn Beck, on his nationally syndicated radio program, May 26.

U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu will hold a late-morning hearing Thursday about the lessons learned and the progress made in the five years since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and large sections of the Gulf coast.

On a night where most of the incumbents held serve in the political arena, Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski is trailing a political unknown. Meanwhile, Arizona Sen. John McCain won his state's GOP nomination in a bitterly fought primary.

Supporters of a long stalled bill to bolster the safety of the nation's food supply are hoping the widening egg salmonella crisis will give them momentum to pass their bill in the Senate as early as next month.

Vice President Joe Biden delivered an optimistic assessment of the political situation in Iraq on Monday, predicting a successful formation of a new unity government in Baghdad and declaring that attempts by al Qaeda to inflame sectarian tensions have "utterly failed."

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Afghan President Hamid Karzai confirmed Sunday that he engineered the release of a security official arrested on suspicion of corruption, bolstering the perception by many that he is unwilling to confront a major problem in his country.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Shirley Sherrod, who received an apology after being forced to resign from Agriculture Department, will meet Tuesday with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to discuss a job offer, a department official confirmed Saturday.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to announce Friday that Israel and the Palestinian Authority have agreed to return to direct talks to address core issues, diplomatic sources and a senior U.S. official said.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is expected to announce Friday that Israel and the Palestinian Authority have agreed to return to direct talks to address core issues, diplomatic sources and a senior U.S. official said.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

The top lawyer for the Pentagon tried to talk to an attorney who said he represented the WikiLeaks website on Sunday, August 15, but the attorney never showed for the 10 a.m. telephone call, according to a Defense Department spokesman.

The Obama administration is preparing to announce new rules allowing some travel to Cuba, along with an expanded ability for Americans to send economic assistance, a senior U.S.official and congressional sources told CNN Wednesday.

A Pentagon spokesman denied a report out Wednesday that the Army is willing to consider working with WikiLeaks to review classified documents that were leaked and will soon be posted online by the website.

President Barack Obama said Wednesday he has "no regrets" about his comments last week supporting the rights of Muslims to build an Islamic center and mosque two blocks from the site of the September 11 terror attacks in New York.